Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Harry Potter Party: Hats

We made these witch hats for Emily's Harry Potter party as a cheaper and easier-to-make alternative to robes, which was Emily's original plan. We made ours from black acrylic felt (the 72"-wide kind on the bolt) which required no interfacing. No interfacing means = no need for a lining, which makes mass-producing even speedier.

We made 12 hats from about 4 - 5 yards of felt (if I remember right), using a tight layout, but if you were making just one, I'd suggest 3/4 yard (you might be able to squeeze one hat into 1/2 yard, but if you don't care for tight layouts, you might prefer 3/4 yard).

The dimensions of the hat are:

height: 17"

brim diameter: about 17"

fits head circumference 22" - 23.5"

Drafting the pattern pieces is a matter of simple geometry - the crown is a cone and the brim is a doughnut - but if you'd rather not do the Math yourself, instructions to draft the templates are included in the pdf file that's available at the end of the party posts.

Here are some basic step-by-steps to make the hat. I photographed the green version because it was easier to see the seams of than the black.

Cut:

1 pie-piece-shape for the crown, with SA along all sides.

2 doughnut shapes for the brim, with SA along the outer and inner circumferences.

The construction sequence follows below. Note that felt does not have a discernible WS and RS in general, but the WS and RS are distinguished in the instructions below for cases in which you are using a fabric that does have discernible right and wrong sides.

Step 1 Make the crownWith RS together, sew the two straight sides of the pie piece shape together to make a cone. Turn RS out.Step 2 Attach the lower brimTake one doughnut piece and and snip partway through the SA of the inner circle. Align this inner circle against the curved bottom edge of the cone so that the RS of this inner circle and the WS of the cone are together. Working with doughnut on top and cone underneath (shove the doughnut inside cone as you work), attach inner circle doughnut to the base of the cone. You should now have a full hat with the SA of its circular seam visible from the top.Step 3 Attach the upper brim around the outer circumferencePlace the second doughnut RS up on your work surface. Place the hat brim-down on the second doughnut so that the RS of the doughnuts are together. Sew the two doughnuts together along their OUTER circumferences. Turn this seam RS out so that the cone protrudes through BOTH doughnut layers, and topstitch 1/4" around the outer circumference of the double-layered brim (see photo below).

Step 4 Attach the upper brim around the inner circumference

Snip the SA of the inner circle of the second doughnut. Fold in its SA (the snips help it lie flat) to the WS and align this folded circular edge with the stitching line from Step 2.

Topstitch (or edge- stitch) through all layers to attach the second doughnut around its inner circumference.

You can see this line of edge-stitching in the black hats below, just around the base of the cone.

Unknown: it really is preference, I guess. All except the final brim seam can be sewn RS-together and turned RS-out. However, that final brim seam is going to have to be folded-in-and-topstitched because we can't sew that RS-together and turned inside out. And since all the brim seams are curved, I picked the one that's shortest, and doesn't end in a free edge, where it'll be easy to see any spots where the folded-in-SA doesn't align perfectly in the two layers. This last seam lies against the bottom edge of the cone, lands right against it (so I can use the underlying stitching line as a guide) and is the smaller of the two concentric circles (i.e. shorter seam to sew than the outer circumference).

Hello and Welcome!

I am a gratefully unemployed mom of three girls, all of whom are growing up much too soon! I like piles of warm, fresh laundry, the smell of salt air near the beach where I used to live, making lists, anything round (like heads) and the quiet evenings sitting with the man of the house after the kids are in bed.

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You are welcome to link to this blog and to any post on this blog and use ONE or TWO photos for that purpose. Do not use photos of my children. You are welcome to pin images from my blog, if those photos do not have my children's faces in them. Please contact me if you want to use the text on, or more photos from, this blog. Do not post my tutorials on your sites. Do not translate tutorials from this blog into other languages on your site. The ideas and instructions in the tutorials are free - but please use them to only make stuff for yourself or for gifts and not to sell. Ta! For more information, this and this might be helpful.